Reitzel India: Sustainable Approach Toward Food Processing

Patrice Janvrin

COO

Patrice Janvrin

COO

According to IBEF, India's food processing sector is one of the largest in the world and its output is expected to reach US$ 535 billion by 2025-26. Some of the major factors that are driving the growth of the industry include, the rise of community – based food hubs, globalization, increasing demand for branded food, and govt.

owned schemes like Atmanirbhar Bharath. While the food processing industry is evolving and welcoming new products, Reitzel Group is seizing the opportunity to revolutionize the space through its robust products and solutions. Established in 1909, it offers a wide range of gourmet pickles&pepper, sauces & salad dressings, aromatic & flavoured olive oils and varieties of vinegar.Over the years, Reitzel has become one of the most preferred choices in the retail and food service segments.

Reitzel India, a subsidiary of Reitzel SA has continuously raised the bar in tune with their Swiss heritage of quality and perfection, enticing taste buds of consumers inmore than 25 countries. They offer a variety of gourmet pickled Gherkins, Peppers, Baby Corns and more. “We are recognized as one of the Top 10 sustainable pickle manufacturers. We supply our pickles and Jalapenos to major QSR, Food service & Retail clients, with a strong presence in most countries in Europe, US, Middle East & South- East Asia,” states Patrice Janvrin, COO at Reitzel India.

Currently faced by challenging scenario of inflationary surge and high volatility in input cost due to Geo-political factor like Russia- Ukraine war

and disruption in global supply chain of the post- pandemic world. Freight cost have risen exponentially, availability of containers has been a challenge, although this improved in the last six months.To address this challenge, the company is focused on product innovations for cost effective alternatives and local sourcing of input material. They are making constant efforts to focus on their cost saving initiatives. The company is also improving its forecast accuracy, ramping up production and streamlining purchases.

Reitzel has been very agile in addressing evolving expectations of their consumers from product range, price to convenience & safety. The company’s brand Hugo Reitzel is available on E-commerce platforms as well like Amazon, Flipkart, Big basket, etc. “We have robust NPD team constantly developing New Products to maintain freshness of our assortment. Our endeavour is to be 100 percent natural & preservative- free by 2030", mentions Patrice. From a quality point and corporate social responsibility of view, the company is a BRC A+, IFS, BSCI, Smeta certified firm. Our products are also certified under Fair trade standards.

The company has carved a niche for itself as a specialist in the food processing space. By looking at the success achieved in Switzerland & France, they expanded their operations in India.A state-of-the-art factory at Kunigal, spread over 11 acres and produces nearly 20,000MTs of pickles annually, which started as a green-field project back in 2004. They take immense pride in taking accountability of ensuring end-to-end traceability from seed distribution, input usage, harvesting by farmers, and production process up to final delivery of products to customers worldwide. All activities are documented and regular audits are carried out to ensure implementation of good practices. More than 85 percent of their workforce in the facility, are women.

Reitzel collaborates closely with clients to help transition to clean label and move towards natural & preservative free products. They are committed to reduce ecological footprint. Over 1500MT of organic compost is generated from production wastage per annum, long- term the facility plans to be 100% dependent on green energy
Patrice Janvrin //COO

Reitzel collaborates closely with clients to help transition to clean label and move towards natural & preservative free products. They are committed to reduce ecological footprint. Over 1500MT of organic compost is generated from production wastage per annum, long- term the facility plans to be 100 percent dependent on green energy.

By 2030, the company choose to follow 100 percent sustainable and regenerative agricultural practices and scale up organic and local produce. Lastly, the company is dedicated to lead the pickle industry towards carbon neutrality or net zero carbon emission.